From the unprecedented scale of migration to questions surrounding the sustainability of urbanization and the consequences of demographic change, this conference examines three interconnected phenomena that individually and collectively shift the world’s population and transform the way we live. Perry World House has identified marginalization and inequality as particularly salient and cross-cutting characteristics of today's global shifts, and this conference helps us identify ways to disrupt these currents and address important questions about human rights across the world. Join us on April 21st, for a day of thought-provoking remarks and conversations on some of today's most pressing global questions with distinguished speakers including Ambassador Samantha Power, Aisa Kirabo Kacyira, Anne C. Richard, Jockin Arputham, and more.

April 20th: "Displacement to development: How marginalization and inequality shape Global Shifts," was an invitation-only experts meeting, convening a select group of scholars, policymakers, and practitioners for a series of substantive conversations looking at the ways in which marginalization and inequality shape global shifts. April 21st was open to the public and featured a number of distinguished guests.

September 19-20, 2016: Perry World House Grand Opening Conference

On Sept. 19 and 20, 2016, the University of Pennsylvania ushered in a new era for Penn’s global engagement and international policy impact with the grand opening of Perry World House. The program celebrated the interconnected missions of PWH—convening conversations around the most pressing global challenges, catalyzing interdisciplinary academic research with policy-relevant potential, creating a home for international students and students with international interests, and connecting Penn to the world. The grand opening included cutting the ribbon on the extraordinary new building at the heart of Penn’s campus, opening a physical space that has transformed Penn’s intellectual space, and bringing together students and faculty from across Penn’s schools and disciplines with practitioners and policymakers from around the world.

The program highlighted the important roles that PWH plays in Penn’s global engagement. Sept. 19 showcased the initial research agenda of the Global Innovation Program, the foreign policy think-tank pillar of PWH. Panel discussions brought together academic thinkers and international policymakers to examine topics at the forefront of global affairs, including emerging technologies, urbanization and migration, religion and politics, and the future of the international order. Sept. 20—the day of the formal ribbon cutting—turned to the relationship between academe and policy, with a series of high-level events focused on the future of U.S. foreign policy. The program concluded with a keynote conversation between Penn President Amy Gutmann and former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.